depens alot on what you want to do with the board, what kind of board it is and what you prefer. but i do think if your planning on doing park then you should het a 152, im 165lbs and ride a 156 allmoutain and id prefer a 154 to be onist. but its up to personel prefrences aswel.

yes a shorter board will make olie-ing easier, and nose-tail presse4s aswel and steering aswel.. basicly a longer board is just more stable..

and yes you will most deff notice 5 cm, some people say they even notice 1cm.... im not one of them tho.

weight:150lb
height:5'8
the board felt great all around, even did little park stuff and as newbie as I am, I thought it held well.

the question is.. is this board too long for me? I was going to get a 151cm but got 156cm as a good deal at time.

how much the difference in reality between the 5cm of a all-mountain board??
I know the shorter board suppose to turn easier, but is it worth for me to get a 151cm then sold this 156??

is the short board goanna make oile easier? as I really would like to get better with.

thx

I'm 5' 9/10" 145lbs. I ride a Custom 156 w/ Cartel EST's. I picked up the 156cm as an all-mountain board. I can press and ollie and nollie ridiculous on this jammy. I've been doing a lot of park stuff lately and I can say that it handles well for the kind of riding I do. I can still get twisty too fs and bs 180s and 3's no prob - a lot of fun in the half-pipe and quarter pipe. I also think you can style stuff out with a little bit longer of a board. If you go to short I think it looks weird (unless you plan on pulling bs 9's then I'd stray away from the 151cm). I would think that the 154/156cm would be a good size for you.

If I was going to do more free-riding, freecarve and powder type riding I'd have invested in a 160cm or bigger.

You might wanna change your stance on the board (get wide enough to be comfortable - My front binding is at 1.5 and my back binding is at .5 - that's if you're using the EST set-up - that also prob depends on how long your legs are and what feels comfortable).

How did the board feel initiating turns? Did you do any wall rides or try to pop off any kickers? Did you try any 180's? How did it feel? Too heavy? Too long to spin effectively? or good?

Remember resistance is your best friend when you're training/practicing. You'll be able to twist like a fiend etc from the extra effort applied on the longer board. That's just my opinion.

I get a lot of pop of the nose and tail of my 156. I like the little extra space from my binding to nose/tail. I can press really hard and pull-up front leg when i'm coming off the press for some serious height. This thing was tossing me off kickers, and launching me off jumps.

I think that this will be a good size for you to get good on and progress and then see if you want more of a freestyle board/free ride board in the future.

As far as ollie's go you might just need to work on the tech (if you skate it's like doing an ollie on a skateboard except your strapped in - crouch down, put pressure on the tail and as you release off the tail pull your front foot/knee up towards your chest and then do the same with the back foot knee, level out in the air and stomp a super fresh landing. Try doing stationary presses (nose and tail) and doing ollie's and nollies on flat surface/stationary then go ahead and do in on gradual slopes until you get comfortable with it.

i do feel that my 154 is a bit too stiff torsionally...i was trying to learn carving but i seem to have hard time initiating turns with lead foot. Would it have been better if i went for a longer board?
would making my stance distance smaller/wider help?
________The Sanctuary of Truth Pattaya

It's all on what you prefer. I'm 6'0 175lbs and I have a 158cm. I ride mostly park with a bit of freeride. I can ollie and press with my 158 just fine. I could have gone with a 156 or even a 154 but I didn't want to sacrifice being able to ride at high speeds with more control for better presses and easier spins.

I think shorter boards are more for jibbing. If you like taking kickers and going big, you'll want the extra couple cm's for better control just before launching yourself off big kickers at high speeds.

im 5'7 170 and i would use a 156 for closer to a free ride. all personal preference except i can guarentee you its a less then ideal park board in that size. i bought a 152 stairmaster extreme with intentions of using it as a park board but now i use it for everything. i find smaller more maneuverable boards more fun..

i do feel that my 154 is a bit too stiff torsionally...i was trying to learn carving but i seem to have hard time initiating turns with lead foot. Would it have been better if i went for a longer board?
would making my stance distance smaller/wider help?

I would try playing around with your stance to get what feels right and also the angle of your bindings. When I first bought the board I used the reference points and had some trouble controlling the board. I've widened my stance a little since then and since I don't ride much powder moved the front foot up towards the nose a little [to me the standard stance on the board seems a little set-back]. (i ride duck and still can get some decent carve action going on although alpine stance is the best for carving and will help you make some beautiful lines on the mountain...)

Teaching someone how to carve via text/email is difficult. Send me an email and I'll send you a snowboard exam I took (and the answers) that explains some basic concepts [flexion/tension, camber, etc]. I'll try to think about how best to arrange the information to explain carving in an email as well when I have more time to write.

I'm 5' 9/10" 145lbs. I ride a Custom 156 w/ Cartel EST's. I picked up the 156cm as an all-mountain board. I can press and ollie and nollie ridiculous on this jammy. I've been doing a lot of park stuff lately and I can say that it handles well for the kind of riding I do. I can still get twisty too fs and bs 180s and 3's no prob - a lot of fun in the half-pipe and quarter pipe. I also think you can style stuff out with a little bit longer of a board. If you go to short I think it looks weird (unless you plan on pulling bs 9's then I'd stray away from the 151cm). I would think that the 154/156cm would be a good size for you.

If I was going to do more free-riding, freecarve and powder type riding I'd have invested in a 160cm or bigger.

You might wanna change your stance on the board (get wide enough to be comfortable - My front binding is at 1.5 and my back binding is at .5 - that's if you're using the EST set-up - that also prob depends on how long your legs are and what feels comfortable).

How did the board feel initiating turns? Did you do any wall rides or try to pop off any kickers? Did you try any 180's? How did it feel? Too heavy? Too long to spin effectively? or good?

Remember resistance is your best friend when you're training/practicing. You'll be able to twist like a fiend etc from the extra effort applied on the longer board. That's just my opinion.

I get a lot of pop of the nose and tail of my 156. I like the little extra space from my binding to nose/tail. I can press really hard and pull-up front leg when i'm coming off the press for some serious height. This thing was tossing me off kickers, and launching me off jumps.

I think that this will be a good size for you to get good on and progress and then see if you want more of a freestyle board/free ride board in the future.

As far as ollie's go you might just need to work on the tech (if you skate it's like doing an ollie on a skateboard except your strapped in - crouch down, put pressure on the tail and as you release off the tail pull your front foot/knee up towards your chest and then do the same with the back foot knee, level out in the air and stomp a super fresh landing. Try doing stationary presses (nose and tail) and doing ollie's and nollies on flat surface/stationary then go ahead and do in on gradual slopes until you get comfortable with it.

first of all... thx for the detailed reply! I really appreciated.

after the 5 days (3/13-1/18) spring condition on breckenridge, keystone, vail...
I thought the 156 custom really was great. I felt pretty comfortable except had hard time to do ollies... but I'm just started to learn how to do it and that may be why lol
on the full stop, I felt doing nallie is way easier than olie.. (with pretty center stance)
I'm riding regular with binding set up 15/-6

I was just very curious about if the 5cm shorter board will make everything easier on mountain. I dont particular do much "very fast" riding.. and I did feel 156cm was comfortable for me (without shorter board to compare yet)
just started to learn some park stuff.. fall really ugly on a rail the last day! (it hurts!!)

156 will have less pop for you, most people dont understand but the 156 is going to be stiffer then the 151 because it is meant for a heavier rider. the 156 will be faster and more stable, while the 151 will have more control, more pop, less swing weight.